What will American
families be like in the
Millennial era?
Millennials (young
Americans born from
1982-2003) are now
beginning to marry and
form their own
families—or at least
thinking about it. What
will American families
be like in the
Millennial era? If
history and generational
theory
provide
any guide, Millennial
families will be very
different from the Baby
Boomer and Generation
X-parented families of
the past four or five
decades.
Social scientists define
a generation as the
aggregate of all people
born over about a
twenty-year period in a
demographic group.
Together those who
comprise a generation
share a common location
in history, and,
according to survey
research, common
beliefs, behaviors, and
perceived membership in
their generation. Today,
another new
generation—the
Millennial Generation
—is emerging into young
adulthood.
Similar to other
generational cohorts
before them, Millennials
were shaped by both the
distinctive pattern of
child rearing and the
societal events they
experienced during
maturation. In their
case, child rearing
emphasized sheltered and
supportive treatment,
coupled with pressure to
achieve and follow
well-defined rules. Like
their GI or Greatest
Generation great
grandparents of the
1930s and 1940s,
Millennials emerged into
a social environment
that featured both a
sharp economic decline
and major international
threats that tested
their confidence and
optimism. All of this is
in sharp contrast to the
“hands-off” approach
that the parents of
Generation X (born
1965-1981) took with
their offspring or the
“permissive, find your
own values” methods that
the parents of Baby
Boomers (born 1946-1964)
employed with their
children. As a
result of what
Millennials experienced
as they matured, we can
already identify some
characteristics of the
Millennial families that
are just beginning to
emerge.
Millennial families will be
increasingly diverse in
their ethnicity,
religious affiliation
and practices, and the
sexual orientation and
lifestyles of partners
and those raising
children. In fact,
Millennial era families
will be so varied that
it will almost not be
meaningful to refer to a
“typical” American
family. At 95 million,
the Millennial
Generation is the
largest in American
history. It is also the
most ethnically and
religiously diverse.
Forty-percent of all
Millennials, and about
half of those still in
high school and middle
school, are non-white.
Only two-thirds (68%)
are Christian, compared
with about 80 percent of
older Americans, and
fewer than half (43%)
are Protestant, in
contrast to 53 percent
of all older
generations. About a
quarter of Millennials
are unaffiliated with
any particular religious
denomination. The
generation’s attitudes
on matters relating to
family and marriage
clearly indicate that
Millennial families will
reflect their ethnic and
religious diversity.
Only a scant five
percent of Millennials
disapprove of
interracial marriage and
fewer than one in four
believe it is important
to marry within one’s
denomination.
Moreover,
less than a quarter of
Millennials disapprove
of couples living
together without
marriage (22%) or of
mothers of young
children working outside
the home (23%). Even on
the
currently most
controversial matter,
two-thirds of
Millennials (64%)
believe that gay
marriage should be
legal, while only a
third (32%) disapproves
of gay couples raising
children. These
diverse family
arrangements are already
reflected on TV sitcoms
like Modern Family and
Parenthood. In the
decades ahead they will
be equally common across
all of American society.Millennials will marry at a
later age than previous
generations. Today,
the median age for a
first marriage among men
is 27.7 and among women,
26. This is about five
years older than it was
in the 1950s and 1960s
for Silent Generation
and Boomer men (22.8)
and women (20.3). To
some degree, this
reflects a long-term
societal trend of
elongating the passage
of American youth into
adulthood. As far back
as the early twentieth
century, psychologist G.
Stanley Hall coined the
term “adolescence” to
describe this new life
phase. Present-day
psychologist, Jeffrey
Jensen Arnett, suggests
the presence of an
additional extension of
youth into the early
twenties which he
labels, “young
adulthood.” But, later
marriages also are a
characteristic of “civic
generations,” the
archetype of both
Millennials and the GI
Generation. In part this
occurs because of the
stressful times in which
civic generations emerge
into adulthood and in
part because of the
cautious upbringing they
received from their
parents. Regardless of
the reasons, most
Millennials will not be
bothered by charges or
complaints about their
generation’s “failure to
launch.” They will
simply do what comes
naturally to a civic
generation in an era of
societal and economic
trauma by taking the
time to get marriage and
childrearing right. Sex role differentiation will be
minimal, if not
nonexistent, and the
distinctions between
career and family
activities blurred in
most Millennial
families. The Cosby
Show and Family Ties,
the 1980s TV sitcoms
that were the first to
depict the rearing of
Millennial children,
were also among the
first in the genre to
show families in which
the roles of the father
and mother were blurred.
Unlike the Boomer era
sitcoms in which dad
went to the office and
mom stayed at home to
cook and take care of
the kids, both parents
in the Huxtable and
Keaton families were
busy and highly
successful professionals
away from the house and
equally successful,
busy, hands-on parents
within it. The
Millennial Generation is
the most gender neutral
in American history. A
Pew survey indicates
that 84 percent of
Millennials disagree
that women should return
to their traditional
roles in society. One
example of how these
beliefs translate into
significant shifts in
society is the ratio of
women to men in higher
education. By
2016 women are projected
to earn 64 percent of
Associate’s Degrees, 60
percent of Bachelor’s
Degrees, 63 percent of
Master’s Degrees, and
56% of Doctorates
awarded in the United
States. With both
parents in most
households being equally
involved in their
careers and families,
employers who want to
attract capable
Millennial workers will
have to accommodate
the generation’s demand
for jobs that offer the
possibility of
telecommuting, flexible
hours, child care, and
round-the-clock access
to technology, something
that will provide a
seamless blend between
working and raising a
family regardless of
where an employee may be
at any particular time.
It is clear that
Millennials will have an
impact on American
family life as profound
as did their GI
Generation great
grandparents six decades
ago. The challenge is
for American
institutions, both
governmental and in the
private sector, to
accommodate these
changes so that
Millennial families will
have the support they
need to be successful.